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"There have been many arguments about the location of the immortal human soul. Could it be in the heart, in the head, or perhaps diffused throughout the whole body -- an all-pervading spiritual quality unique to the human being? The answer, it seems to me as a zoologist, is obvious enough: a man's soul is located in his testicles; a woman's in her ovaries. For it is here that we find the truly immortal elements in our constitution-our genes." -Desmond Morris in The Human Animal (1994).

For most of my life, I did not question the existence of God. My wife, most of my family, friends and relatives were all born into Christianity. We can be classified as ?non-practicing' or ?moderate' Christians. We went to church occasionally. When we did, it would be mainly for baptisms, deaths and marriages. The strength of our beliefs varied from believing that God exists to believing that religion is beneficial, regardless of His existence. Does God exist? Should we believe in God? Having an opinion on such big questions seemed inconsequential. We did not see how our lives would be impacted if we were to have an opinion on the matter. For us, there was no urgency. These questions were not as important as getting good grades, finishing studies, getting jobs or taking care of loved ones. Besides, what did it matter? We just had to be good mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and neighbours. All that mattered was that we were good to other people and that we did not inflict injury, harm, or suffering to another human being. The golden rule of treating others the way we want to be treated was our guiding thought, and to us, that was enough. But since last year, I became really curious when I realised that our beliefs, religious or otherwise, impact on our lives and the lives of others. Further, our religious beliefs permeate in everything we think and do. It is at the centre of most global issues we now face. So, I set out for a quest to try and understand our existence and find the answers to questions on God, morality and religion. My journey led me to writing a book. I have not discussed about my journey much in this blog but now that it is done, I will tell you about it. The book is called: The Tyranny Of God. One of my biggest worries in writing this book was the breadth of topics I had to cover. At times, I wondered whether I was doing the right thing in casting as wide a net as I did. I chose to proceed because, to understand the true nature of religion, we cannot limit our discussions to religious texts. Instead, we need to take a larger, macroscopic view. We need to see how it relates to human nature and to our society. We need to consult our sciences and corroborate our analysis with our history. In our struggle to broaden our outlook, we need to start from the very beginning. From there, we work progressively. We will learn about cosmology, abiogenesis, genetics, evolution, language, memes, history, current affairs and so on. The main purpose of this book is not to argue against religion. Rather, it tells our story and how we have come to oppress ourselves with the tyranny of our own beliefs. I wrote this book to include everything I discovered to be relevant in my search for the truth, not just the truth behind God and morality, but also behind us and our existence. Instead of reading this book with the expectation that it is trying to prove the tyranny of God, I would like to recommend you read it as a story book: as a book that tells the story of humanity from the Big Bang. I wanted to make this book easy to read and simple to understand, to the extent that I can in explaining some complex ideas. I also wanted it, regardless of the extensive amount of information, light enough to carry around whilst keeping important information intact. Reasonism.Org, a website dedicated to the subject matter of the book, has been created and is now active. It provides resources, including videos, articles and other relevant material. There is also a forum there where people can discuss and express their thoughts on the deep questions we all ask. Regardless of your religiousity, or lack thereof, I welcome and recommend that you visit it when you can. If you want to submit your stories and opinions there for publication, you may do so. I will be participating in the website as often as I can. I'll see you there.

SOME Muslim religious leaders in Victoria are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and exploitation of women, according to an explosive report on the training of imams.The report says some imams apply Sharia (Islamic law) when it benefits men but not when it benefits women, and that they hinder police from pursuing domestic violence charges. (Source)

Islamic leaders have condemned the Bali bombers in a bid to quell religious tensions after the three militants died together at the hands of elite Indonesian police snipers in Central Java today...Indonesia was tonight on high alert for terrorist attacks and mob violence, as hundreds of hardline followers gathered in the bombers' home villages in east and west Java to bury the men responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings. (Source)

Beleaguered Christians in India have "run out of cheeks to be struck" a senior Anglican bishop declared yesterday, on hearing reports that a Christian mob had hacked a Hindu to death in the troubled state of Orissa. Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, called for peace, and said that the murder, conducted by a knive-wielding mob of 50 Christians, could not be condoned. But he told The Times: ?For months now, scores of Christians have been killed, homes, convents and presbyteries have been burnt down to the ground." He said: "Now one Hindu has been killed, allegedly by Christians. We do not know under what circumstances but it suggests that the worm has turned and the Christian community has run out of cheeks to be struck." (Source)

Armed police officers have boarded a KLM jet just minutes before takeoff and arrested a pair of ethnic Somalis, saying they found a suicide note from the men that claimed the pair wanted to fight in a holy war and die in a terrorist attack. (Source)

The Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC), the state's central law reform agency, recommended in March that proposed abortion reform legislation should require doctors who conscientiously object to abortions to refer patients to another provider. The government has followed the advice in its Abortion Law Reform Bill. Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart has said the clause would force Catholic doctors and hospitals to break the law, because they would not provide referrals for the purpose of abortions. (Source)

A teenage girl in India has reportedly killed herself out of fear the world was about to end because of the atom-smashing "Big Bang" experiment" conducted in Europe...But fears have been raised the experiment could create a black hole that would suck the Earth away, although the scientists involved insist the experiment is safe. Fears about the experiment had spread rapidly through the media in deeply religious India, The Daily Mail said. Thousands of people had rushed to temples to pray and fast while others savoured their favourite foods in anticipation of the world's end, the paper said. PERSONAL COMMENT: I am writing a book on this at the moment so I find this very relevant. The new atom smasher is an exciting equipment because it provides a new tool for Physicist to test out there Membrane Theory of the universe. The M Theory is a combination of The String Theory and the Theory of Super Gravity. If they can successfully smash atoms and are able to locate a graviton, disappearing to another dimension, it would be very good evidence to show that the theory is correct. If the theory is correct, then we can have an explanation behind what happened before the Big Bang. It will tie in many mysteries and we will have a scientific Theory of everything that Albert Einstein, himself, dedicated the last years of his life in finding.